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North Carolina Transformation (NCT) initiative: A tailored intervention to improve lowest-performing schools through coaching and support services

North Carolina Transformation (NCT) initiative is a program that targets the lowest performing schools in North Carolina to improve their performance. The program involves a comprehensive needs assessment (CNA) and unpacking process, followed by coaching and support services provided by the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The coaching services are tailored to the specific needs of each school and are intended to build the capacity of school staff to improve student achievement. The program does not involve any of the four federal turnaround models, which include replacing the principal and at least half of the staff, turning over the management of the school to a charter management organization, or closing the school. Instead, the NCT initiative focuses on building the capacity of existing staff and providing them with the support and resources they need to improve student achievement.

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Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade Ninth Grade Tenth Grade
Published: 2019
English Language Arts

Stepping Stones to Literacy: Supplementing Regular Reading Curriculum to Improve Alphabetics Skills in Early Literacy

Stepping Stones to Literacy (SSL) is a supplemental reading curriculum that targets early literacy skills, specifically alphabetics, for students with or at risk of early literacy deficits. The program comprises 25 lessons, each 10-20 minutes long, that guide students through sequenced activities to master five critical early literacy skill sets: listening, print conventions, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and serial processing/rapid naming. Students are taught in small groups or individually, depending on their level of need. The curriculum includes a lesson book, instructional prompts in English and Spanish, and a separate section on serial rapid automatic naming activities.

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Kindergarten First Grade
Published: 2007
Non-Academic Area

We Have Skills!: Teaching Social Skills to Elementary Students

We Have Skills! (WHS) is a program that teaches social skills to elementary students. WHS comprises three separate, functional components: Module 1 delivers student instructional materials, Module 2 offers an online tool for assessing student social behavior in response to instruction, and Module 3 provides professional development materials covering delivery of the instruction and more intensive forms of student support. The program includes video lessons, songs, posters, and practice activities to proactively teach core skills. It also includes a reinforcement system, teacher supports for addressing students' differing support needs, and an online Elementary School Behavior Assessment to assess the effectiveness of the lessons and individual student responsiveness.

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Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade
Published: 2014
English Language Arts Math

Diagnostic Assessment Tools (DAT): Interim assessments to inform instructional practice and meet student needs in mathematics and reading

Diagnostic Assessment Tools (DAT) is a set of two interim assessments aligned to Indiana state standards and grade-level expectations, intended to help teachers monitor student learning and adjust their instruction to student needs during the school year. DAT consists of Wireless Generation's mCLASS for students in grades K-2 and CTB/McGraw-Hill's Acuity for students in grades 3-8. The mCLASS software package includes diagnostic assessments in reading and math, while Acuity includes four diagnostic assessments and three predictive assessments. Both assessments are accompanied by progress monitoring tools, instructional tools, and online support systems that allow teachers to assess student performance on state standards and objectives and identify students performing at different achievement levels.

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Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade
Published: 2015
English Language Arts

Scholastic's System 44: Foundational Reading Program for Older Struggling Readers

System 44 is a foundational reading program intended for older struggling readers who have not mastered basic phonics and decoding skills. Combining researched-based phonics instruction with adaptive technology, System 44 is designed to improve students' word reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. The System 44 program delivers research-based instruction through an adaptive computer component; teacher-led small-group instruction; and individual student practice involving high-interest, leveled materials. Thus students who have not responded to classroom reading instruction may benefit from the more intensive and specific decoding instruction provided through System 44.

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Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade
Published: 2012
English Language Arts

VIP: Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Reading Achievement and English Language Development

VIP is a curriculum that targets the vocabulary needs of English-language learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms. The program includes detailed lesson plans, quasi-scripted lesson guides, overhead transparencies, worksheets, homework assignments, and all necessary reading assignment texts. On Mondays, learner students are given the weekly reading assignment in their native language to preview before it is introduced in English on the following day. On Tuesdays, the teacher leads whole-group lessons to review the text and define the target vocabulary. On Wednesdays, teachers divide the students into heterogeneous language groups to complete two cloze activities. On Thursdays, teachers again divide the students into small groups to complete word association, synonym/antonym, and semantic feature analysis activities. Then, each Friday, teachers lead activities that cover a range of topics including analysis of root words and knowledge of multiple meanings of words.

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Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade
Published: 2006